EMEA News
Fujairah to See 75% Rise in Tank Storage by 2020
The Port of Fujairah expects capacity for tank storage of petroleum products to grow by 75 percent by 2020, local media reports.
Storage capacity at the port is said to be set to reach 8 million cubic metres (cbm) by the end of this year and 14 million cbm by 2020.
The port's General Manager, Mousa Murad, made the prediction during a speech at the inauguration of tank operator Vopak Horizon Fujairah (VHF)'s seventh expansion phase, known as the Black Pearl.
The phase is said to be 35 percent complete and will add 480,000 cbm capacity across 5 tanks by next year, supplementing the company's currently operational 2.1 million cbm tank capacity.
The new tanks will be the port's first crude oil storage facility, and are being built in tandem with a jetty deigned for use by very large crude carriers (VLCCs).
VHF is a joint venture including Dutch tank operator Royal Vopak NV, the Fujairah Government, Dubai-based Emirates National Oil Co., and Kuwait's Independent Petroleum Group.
"Some customers think there is a real business for them here in trans-shipping crude through Fujairah and that's the reason why we have facilitated them with building some capacity for them," said Royal Vopak's EMEA President Frank Erkelens.
Erkelens also said the company is keen to expand its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) business and said VHF was open to collaborating with an Abu Dhabi-led project to develop a LNG import terminal at the port.
The port is also said to be expecting a new 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) refining facility in neighbouring Abu Dhabi which will make the port more attractive for crude shippers and will spur further demand for petrochemical storage capacity.
In January, Gulf Petrochem Group said it would begin barge bunkering operations using its Fujairah storage facility as a base.
